#BringBackOurGirls

Please be aware that this is merely a repost from an article on Elle from the editors of MarieClaire.com. I just want everyone to be aware of what is going on and to continue to take action to bring back our girls. Our country has faced horrific acts brought against our children, and others are continuing to face it. Please, as a global community, let’s share our support and empathy. Let’s continue to urge our Federal Leaders to get involved and take action!

Heavily armed terrorists have abducted more than 200 teenaged girls from the boarding school dormitory where they slept. Here’s what you need to know, and how you can help.

What happened?
On April 15, members of the terrorist organization Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group, drove into the town of Chibok, a small farming town in northeastern Nigeria, and made their way to the girls’ boarding school. The girls, ages 15 to 18, were inside their dormitory. They awoke to gunfire, their school ablaze. The militants, reportedly dressed in Nigerian military uniforms, herded the terrified girls into their vehicles, telling them they would be taken to safety. Instead, they vanished.

What has happened to the girls since they were taken?
Sanya told The New Yorker they were initially taken to a camp in the bush not far from Chibok. We don’t know much else or where the remainder of the girls may have been taken since. The leader of the Boko Haram claimed responsibility on May 5, and can be seen in a videotaped statement saying he plans to sell the girls “in the marketplace.” The videotape follows reports from family members of the missing girls last week who said they had heard there had been mass marriages and that the girls were being shared out as wives among the militants.

Who are the Boko Haram?
Terrorists. A Muslim extremist group who basically hate everything remotely associated with the West. Case in point: their name means “Western education is a sin.” Since their founding in 2002, they have staged massacres, shootings, and numerous coordinated bomb attacks around the country, notably attacking both a police headquarters and the United Nations headquarters in the capital city, Abuja, in 2011. Students and teachers are frequent targets. According to Amnesty International, in 2013 alone fifty schools were burned or badly damaged and more than 60 others were forced to close. Earlier this year, Boko Haram members shot or burned to death 59 male students at a boarding school also in the northeastern part of the country. Since March, many schools in the area had been closed for fear of attacks. The school where the girls were kidnapped had only recently reopened, so final exams could be held.

How can we help?
You can help by not letting this story disappear off the radar—after all, the investigation announced by President Jonathan was announced only after this story gained traction in the media and on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Use the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls to help encourage an international response. (You can do as Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring the attend school, has and post a message to Instagram.) There’s a We the People petitionposted on WhiteHouse.gov that urges the Obama Administration to work with the United Nations and Nigerian government to bring the girls home, a Change.org petition directed at President Jonathan, and a Facebook group.

Please note that the images that I used were ones that I found on either Twitter or Instgram, and I am not aware of the original source, I would have given credit to the author.